Genetic analysis of ecologically relevant morphological variability in Plantago lanceolata L. VI The relation between allozyme heterozygosity and some fitness components

Abstract

Demographic characters and allozyme variability were studied in a hayfield population of P. lanceolata. From 1978 until 1987 all plants present in 15 permanent quadrats of 40 × 30 cm were observed with regard to year of origin and number of leaves, scapes and rosettes. In 1986 small parts of the leaves were sampled and used for electrophoresis. The genotypes for 10 allozyme loci were determined and correlations of heterozygosity and demographic characters were calculated. It appeared that the presence of scapes and the total number of scapes had significant positive correlations with heterozygosity. In some cases there was a positive correlation between number of leaves and heterozygosity, whereas there was no correlation between age and heterozygosity. In separate analyses of each allozyme locus, superiority of the heterozygote allozyme genotype was found in a number of cases. Therefore the overdominance hypothesis cannot be rejected. Copyright © 1990, Wiley Blackwell. All rights reserved